The present invention relates to a system and method for providing operating and/or upgrading geographic data for use with navigation application programs used in navigation systems.
Computer-based navigation application programs are available that provide end-users with various navigating functions and features. For example, some navigation application programs are able to determine an optimum route to travel by roads between locations. Using input from an end-user, and optionally from equipment that can determine one's physical location (such as a GPS system), a navigation application program can examine various routes between two locations to determine an optimum route to travel from a starting location to a destination location in a geographic region. The navigation application program may then provide the end-user with information about the optimum route in the form of instructions that identify the maneuvers required to be taken by the end-user to travel from the starting location to the destination location. If the navigation system is located in an automobile, the instructions may take the form of audio instructions that are provided along the way as the end-user is traveling the route. Some navigation application programs are able to show detailed maps on computer displays outlining routes to destinations, the types of maneuvers to be taken at various locations along the routes, locations of certain types of features, and so on.
In order to provide these and other navigating functions, the navigation application program requires one or more detailed databases that include data which represent physical features in a geographic region. The detailed database may include data representing the roads and intersections in a geographic region and also may include information about the roads and intersections in a geographic region, such as turn restrictions at intersections, speed limits along the roads, the locations of stop signs, street names of the various roads, address ranges along the various roads, and so on. Further, the geographic data may include information about points-of-interest. Presently, the collection of such geographic data and the provision of such data in a computer-usable format are provided by Navigation Technologies of Sunnyvale, Calif.
In order to provide these and other useful and enhanced features in a navigation system, there is a need to gather and organize comprehensive, detailed, reliable, and up-to-date data about geographical regions. There is also a need to continuously update the geographic data. Just like conventional printed maps, geographic data used in computer-based navigation systems can become out-of-date. For example, new roads are built, businesses change locations, road construction closes roads, detours are established, museum and restaurant hours change, etc. It is expected that end-users, such as vehicle owners who have navigation systems in their vehicles, will want to have the geographic data content in their navigation systems updated from time to time.
There are presently a number of different, incompatible navigation system platforms. It is expected that the number of different platforms will increase in years to come as navigation systems become more powerful and include even more features. This proliferation of different, incompatible navigation system platforms presents an obstacle to providing updated geographic data content for end-users, i.e. the persons and businesses who already have navigation systems. In order to provide updated geographic data content for end-users' navigation systems over the lifetimes of the navigation systems, the provider of geographic data needs to provide products that not only have updated geographic data content, but also that are compatible with the many end-users' particular navigation systems. Over the expected lifetimes of navigation systems, which may be ten years or more, this could require supporting a growing number of old, incompatible navigation system platforms. If specialized versions of geographic data products with updated content were produced for each separate, different type and version of navigation platform, the number of such different products would increase dramatically over time thereby making the provision of geographic data products with updated content to end-users difficult and expensive.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the problem of providing updated geographic data content for a variety of hardware platforms.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved navigation system and geographic database(s) for use therein that can be efficiently developed, manufactured, customized, distributed, and/or updated across a variety of navigation system platforms, operating systems, and releases.